Saturday, February 7, 2015

Kickstarter Shout-Outs, Updates, and More of Your Help Needed :)

My Kickstarter campaign officially ended last night, and I am THRILLED to report that I was able to raise $555, thanks to all of my lovely backers. This was far above and beyond what I expected. Once again, I want to thank all of you who backed me, but I also wanted to thank all of you who have offered me your congratulations or told me that you're praying for me. The amount of support I've gotten for this next step in my writing journey has been overwhelming. I would appreciate your continued prayers as I finish my writing and prepare for the conference. I can't wait to share what happens at Mount Hermon! :D

I need to share some Shout-Outs one last time. :)

-Eva Z. deserves another shout-out, because she raised her pledge. Thanks, Eva!

-Jay of JABHA Creativity swooped in and became a backer on the last day, too. Thank you, Jay!

And thank you again to all of my backers. I couldn't have done it without you. :)

I'm in the process of collecting mailing addresses and getting artwork postcards packaged up to ship. I'll be working on the map for my $100 backers over the next few weeks, too.

I was thinking when my whole experience with Kickstarter is over, I'd like to share a bit about the site here on the blog. Since it was my first time participating in a crowdfunding site, there were a lot of things I didn't know. I thought it might be helpful for some of you to hear a little more about the site, how it works, what I liked and what I didn't. I'll wait to share those thoughts until everything is done, though, so I can have a clearer picture of how the whole process works from start to finish. :)

So, as I mentioned in an earlier post, these next few weeks I'll be really buckling down and focusing on getting my book finished. This means I won't be on the blog or my Facebook page much, especially these first two weeks. However, I won't leave you completely in the lurch. I've already got some fun posts scheduled to publish throughout my absence. :)

I will check my blog comments and publish them at least once a week, but I will not be responding to them until I come back. So please don't panic if I don't respond to you or even publish your comment right away. At the end of my mini-hiatus I will respond to your thoughts. ;)

I also plan on releasing my "Ask Beast'sBelle" (and the Gals) Vlog sometime this week. There's still time to submit questions, so if you have a burning question you'd like to leave for me or my daughters, you can leave it in the comments on this post or on the original post HERE. I will take questions until tomorrow. :)

In other news, I need help from all of you! As I mentioned before, I'm in the process of working on my map of my fairytale world. Since I'm early on in the story process, many of the landmarks on my map need names, and I'm facing a serious case of writer's block!

I thought it would be fun to have you, my readers, share in this story adventure with me by helping me name some of my landmarks. Here are a few of the things that need names:

-Rivers
-Mountains
-Beaches
-Roads
-Regions of the land (The kingdom is split into seven different areas, each with their own ruler, trade, and culture. The first region is an island, the second is sandy and coastal, the third is heavily forested, and the fourth has lush meadows. The fifth is located high in the mountains, while the sixth is full of lakes, ponds, and waterfalls. The seventh is mostly forested with a few small beaches.)

I can also share that there are areas in which you might happen to find mythical creatures, such as unicorns, dragons, and mermaids. ;)

This is a fairytale world, so the names can be unique! If you'd like, you could even share what sort of landmark you'd like to name or explain how you came up with the name.

Leave your name ideas in the comments below. Each reader can contribute six name ideas. The deadline is Saturday, February 21st, so you have two weeks to brainstorm! :)

I have not decided yet how many names I will choose to use. A lot of that will depend on what you come up with! :) If your name is chosen, I will give you credit in the back of my book once it is published. :)

I guess that's about it for now! I'm looking forward to seeing your creativity unleashed! ;) Now, it's time for me to unleash my own and get writing!! I'll be all the way back in two to three weeks, and partially here to publish comments and make sure posts publish correctly in the meantime. :)

A mountain near me is called "Blood Mountain"...and I have always wanted to put it in a story. (The mountain itself is a typical Appalachain mountain, not really sinister...but the NAME sounds ridiculously sinister)

Names....argh! This is my least favorite bit of writing.Hmmm...well, I always thought a good name for a place with lots of mountains could be Rosenberg. Or that could be one of the mountains. (completely made up by my brain as a last name for one of my characters, but also a place name in my book) I have no idea how relevant a specific mountain may or may not be in your book, but if there is a bit that happens on a specific part of a mountain, such as the top, you could name the mountain Mt. Rosenberg and have the peak be called Rosenberg's Peak.

I also have thought of the name Chester as a good place name. Maybe if you have a place with lots of nut trees it could be named that. :)

The sixth could be named something along the lines of Nerida/Nereida, but not necessarily those. (They mean water) Maybe something like Alanerid. I don't know if that is a name or not, my brain just randomly came up with it.

The sixth could also be named something along the lines of Adria/Adrie/Adrianne. Avonmora is also pretty, and it means "from the great river"Or a play on the word Lyn. Adalyn, maybe. That would play on both the Adr... and the Lyn bit.This is a great website for water names.http://hasani.net.phtemp.com/water.html

In case you can't tell by now, my main character has a water name. (my story is based on the little mermaid as a tween, and her name is Miria, which I made up, and it wasn't on the sites I was using, but now I just looked at another and it is on there and does not have a water meaning, though mine was a mix of Miriam and Miri, and there's was from Mariah) And yes, that was a mouthful.

Anyways, I'm allowed one more idea. Hmmmm....

I really like the name Elle/Elle Vale/Elle Hollow/Elle Cove/Elle something-or-other as a fantasy name. I think it's a bit more, well, fairytales-ish than Ellie.Elle means beautiful, so you could use it for one of those places where there are unicorns or mermaids, or maybe waterfalls or beaches. (Elle beach) I have lots of other name ideas but those are my favorites ones.

Maybe try things named after things of meaning to you? I always have trouble naming my places in my writing, too. Latin derivatives help, as well, such as magia for someplace with magical properties or flumine for somewhere by a river.

Here's an interesting Tumblr post on place-naming as part of fantasy world-building: http://worldbuildingtesrat.tumblr.com/post/97030432657/lets-talk-about-toponymy

The author reminds us that place names tell us the history of the region -- so if you've invented the history, and you've decided on a system for prefixes and suffixes that mean stuff like "town" (boro? ton? corners?), you should be able to blast right past that pesky writer's block!

Clairine Lake? Clair means clear in French, so I thought it sounds sort of nice...Possibly for a mountain or something- Peticolle? It's sort of a mashup of the french words petite (small) and colline (hill).

1. For the region of the land with waterfalls and lakes or the island: Arc-en-ciel or (to combine the words into something that sounds more like a name) Arcenciel, which is French for "rainbow."2. Dwarf Mountain for a mountain (hopefully obviously.) The idea of an extremely tall mountain being called Dwarf Mountain just cracked me up.3. Sweetgrass Meadows for the fourth region4. Felicity River (not named for the American Girl, named for a sort of paradise-like idea. I always feel at peace near rivers.)5. Periwinkle Way/Valley for a road somewhere6. Illumination cove for a beachI hope these help!! I had a lot of fun coming up with them, especially Arcenciel!

Carrickters daughter here! She asked me to come over and leave some more names that we came up with :)

Moccieville (Luma which she already emailed you is one of our cats, Moccie is the other and I couldn't leave him out of being suggested)Bartertown Buskers Rest (reminds me of an old tavern)Mushroom swamp

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About Me

I'm a stay-at-home mom with 3 little girls, happily married for 13 years to my high school sweetheart, and most importantly, a Christian. I love singing in my church, spending time with my family, and fixing up TLC dolls. I'm also hoping to eventually become a published author, but we'll see what the Lord has planned.
The other blog contributors on my team are Tess, Maggie, and Emma, my 18" dolls who write on "Jane Austen and Unicorns" about their adventures, and Belle, my 12" Disney fashion doll who shares her life stories on "Belle's Bulletins".